Near Miss

Chapter 6

Trench Molder snapped the padlock on his locker shut, then walked into the weight room at the East Side Athletic Club and immediately saw Huff across the room, helping another member. Huff saw him, too, and quickly looked away. Trench didn’t like that. Huff had no reason to be furtive with him.

Trench worked his way slowly through his routine. Eventually, Huff got around to him. “Hey, Huff.”

“Hey, Trench.”

“What’s wrong?”

Huff heaved a deep sigh.

“Did you make any progress on the Barrington matter?”

“I’m sorry, Trench. Barrington made me, and so did his pal, Bacchetti.”

“C’mon, Huff, you’re slicker than that.”

“I usually am,” Huff said, “but not today.”

“What happened?”

“I walked into his line of sight.”

“So?”

“Twice. Now he’s curious, and I can’t approach if I’m on his mind.”

“It could happen to anybody, Huff.”

“Not to me. Not ever before. He’s smarter than I thought.”

“Smarter than I thought, too,” Trench said. “So now, what’s your plan?”

“Cool it down for a while. Otherwise, when he sees me on the street again, he’ll approach, and then I’m useless to you.”

“Cool it for how long?”

“Say a couple of weeks. I’ll stick close to home. No contact at all. He’ll eventually forget about me, and then I can do my work. I know you wanted immediate action, but at least you’re not out any money.”

“Let’s leave it like this, Huff,” Trench said. “You do your work in your own good time, and I’ll be satisfied with that. On the other hand, I won’t forget, either.”

“That’s good of you,” Huff said.

“Just let me know when you’re ready.”

The party at Herb Fisher’s was good, and Stone and Matilda immediately fell into the swing of things. There was a jazz pianist and a bass player, which kept the party moving. The noise level, as it does in a good room, went up.

Then, an unwelcome sight greeted Stone: Trench Molder walked into the room with a beautiful blonde on his arm.

“Did you see?” Matilda asked.

“I saw. Ignore him. If he speaks to you, don’t respond. That’ll give his girlfriend something to ask him about, and he won’t have a good answer.”

“Good idea.”

They dragged some stools up to the piano and hung there. Stone liked the way the pianist played, putting thought into the music. Normally, as a kind of joke, Stone would ask a pianist to play “Lush Life,” a Billy Strayhorn ballad so complex that nobody could remember it without the sheet music.

But this guy probably would, Stone surmised.

Herb Fisher greeted the two new guests, but he didn’t look all that glad to see them, and he quickly moved on to speak to others. Molder looked unhappy about that, and his girl looked curiously at him. He took her elbow and moved her toward the piano, but Stone and Matilda both turned away as he approached, leaving his date with more questions to ask. Molder guided her angrily to the bar.

“Perfect,” Matilda said. “Did you see his face?”

“I saw her face,” Stone said.

Dino and Viv arrived and came over to the piano. Kisses and an introduction between Matilda and Viv followed.

“I see your cad of the other evening,” Dino said to her.

“That’s why he’s here,” she said. “To be seen. He’d like to be thought of as part of this crowd.”

“Did you see anything more of your tail?” Dino asked Stone.

“Nope. He found somebody else to bug, I guess.”

“I have a feeling you may see him again,” Dino said, “and it won’t be pretty.”

“You could be right.”

“Are you packing?”

“Not exactly,” Stone replied.

“That’s what I thought. I’ll be scraping you off the sidewalk somewhere soon.”

“I perceive no threats here,” Stone said. “Not even from the cad.”

Stone explained to Matilda what they were talking about.

“Describe the man,” she said.

Stone did so.

“That sounds like a man who works at Trench’s gym,” she said. “Trench calls him ‘Huff.’ ”

“You’ve met this Huff?” Stone asked.

“I picked Trench up at his gym once,” she said. “He was talking to Huff when I walked in. There was a perfunctory introduction.”

“I’m betting a perfunctory introduction is the only kind you’d want with a guy like Huff,” Dino said.